thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Intermediate

Risk Scenario

Description of a plausible event in which a threat exploits a vulnerability to cause a specific business impact.

Definition

Risk scenarios combine actor, threat type, event, asset, and time to make abstract risks concrete and analyzable. ISACA's Risk IT uses top-down (from business objectives) and bottom-up (from generic scenarios) development. Well-written scenarios support quantification and control selection.

Example

A disgruntled administrator deletes production databases after termination, causing two days of outage.

Exam tip

CRISC emphasizes scenarios as the foundation for risk analysis and communication.

Related terms